Missed yesterday’s post? Click here.
Today was the quietest day so far. And I loved it. Finally caught up properly with my sleep. Didn’t even spend any serious time on social media. Largely because we are cutting down Starlink time as we need to conserve energy.
At some state the team deliberated for a whole ten minutes if we should beach Hermione and go for a little walk on land. Only to come to the conclusion yeah nah. Too much of a hassle.
While it is very unfortunate that the Southwesterly keeps us from continuing our journey for now, it is quite fortunate that it brought a heat wave with it. 17C and not a cloud in the sky, just the sun. If forecasts are to be believed, then Saturday might be a scorching hot 26C. Not normal for the High Arctic, just around the corner from the North Pole. Not great for the local flora and fauna, terrifying indeed. But it does come with benefits for those who want to stretch out on the deck and catch a tan.
ExplorersWeb and a couple of other sites are predicting a good chance that we might bump into Simon Carrier and Maxime Geoffroy today, who are kayaking the Northwest Passage West to East this summer. On their tracker we can see them approaching our location, Wellington Bay, aided by the favourable winds and going at good speed.
Leven and Karts spotted some more caribou, I only saw some jellyfish, terns, parasitic jaegers, ducks, geese, seagulls, loons. At some stage we thought we had heard some wolves, but then decided it probably simply was the distorted sounds of some birds.
At some stage, Leven was giving me a look as in “cabin fever, aye?” and I explained why I was waving my arms like a big wooden puppet on its annual maintenance check. I had learned or at least thought I’d learned, that those curious seals that were regularly eyeballing our boat from a distance, could sometimes be attracted closer to the boat by such waving action. In that particular instance (and 80% of the other instances) it didn’t work. Fair enough. Edison made 1,000 unsuccessful attempts at inventing the light bulb, so there’s that.
When I got up just before 9pm to start my midnight-shift, I asked Mike and Leven if anything much had happened on their shift. Mike, acting bored, mumbled “just a fox, on the horizon”… then, with a mischievous sparkle in his eyes and in a secretive manner: “or it could have been a wolf”, jokingly implying that us bloggers big things up for our posts on occasion (we don’t, haha).
Leven joined the conversation, and in the wink of an eye we were talking a pack of giant bloodthirsty timber wolves, still dripping blood from the corners of their ferocious jaws. The blood of a few unfortunate local hunters, as we learned later.
For tomorrow’s post click here.
HIGHLIGHTS OF THE NORTHWEST PASSAGE EXPEDITION
22 July – LHR to YCB
2 August 2024 (Cambridge Bay to Starvation Bay)
4 August 2024 (Starvation Bay to Wellington Bay)
12 August 2024 (From Wellington Bay 6h further Westward)
15 August 2024 (53mi/96km from Botany Island to Richardson Islands)
18 August 2024 (from Richardson Islands past Marker Islands)
22 August 2024 (23mi/37km Westward from Miles and Nauyan Islands past Lady Franklin Point – extremely tough conditions – ‘MISSION IMPOSSIBLE’)
23 August 2024 (Dreadful 10 miles – 12mi/19km – that felt like 100 miles to Douglas Island; welcome committee of two dozen seals)
25 August 2024 (An easy 19mi/31km from Douglas Island to Lambert Island; MS Fridtjoff Nansen passing)
27 August 2024 (An easy 7mi/9km along Lambert Island; yacht Night Owl passing by us)
28 August 2024 (STARTING OUR 64MI/104KM PUSH EARLY; passing Hanseatic Spirit, MS Roald Amundsen, yacht Honshu)
29 August 2024 (Arriving at Cape Hope after 64mi/104km – new team best)
30 August 2024 (EMERGENCY BEACHING at a bay next to Cape Hope)
31 August 2024 (CABIN FLOODED; LEAK FOUND)
Mike’s Poem about our Northwest Passage Expedition
3 September 2024 (REPAIRING HERMIONE)
DETAILS OF LEVEN’S MASTERPIECE: THE PRELIMINARY REPAIR and preparation of the re-launch of Hermione
4 September 2024 (A LOT OF DIGGING and another unsuccessful attempt to refloat the boat)
5 September 2024 (REFLOATING HERMIONE, MOTORING TOWARDS PAULATUK; MILITARY PLANE PASSING)
6 September 2024 (BACK TO ROWING AFTER EMERGENCY MOTOR BREAKS)
8 September 2024 (my 50th birthday; ALMOST CRASHING THE BOAT into rocks; Skynet; a pod of whales)
12 September 2024 (starting our last big push before Paulatuk; RUNNING AGROUND 3X; BIOLUMINESCENCE; Northern lights)
13 September 2024 (ALL HELL BREAKING LOOSE – ALMOST CRASHING INTO CLIFFS)
NORTHERN LIGHTS, 15 September, near Paulatuk
15 September 2024 (REACHING PAULATUK)
16 September 2024 (eating proper food; shower; the good life)
19 September 2024 (flying back home; 5 flights; Breakfast Club at Inuvik Airport)
Stefan will be rowing the Northwest Passage this summer – A little Q&A
Northwest Passage Expedition – Kit List
Trevor’s Travel Trivia IX – The Northwest Passage
My home town’s newspaper, Burghauser Anzeiger, has published an article about the Expedition
Post-expedition Q&As – Coming back from the Arctic after two months